A construction crew works on a draining system adjacent to the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street where flooding has occurred regularly in severe weather situations.
Jordan Kartholl / The Star Press

The occupants of a car that was carried by flood water during a downpour under the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street wait for rescue Friday afternoon. The driver disregarded a flashing high water sign positioned before the overpass.The water rescue was one of several performed by emergency responders under the Madison Street overpass in the last year.
Jordan Kartholl/The Star Press

A construction crew works on a draining system adjacent to the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street where flooding has occurred regularly in severe weather situations.
Jordan Kartholl / The Star Press

Firefighters rescued the occupants of a car that became stranded under the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street following heavy rain Friday afternoon. The driver disregarded a flashing high water sign positioned before the overpass.The water rescue was one of several performed by emergency responders under the Madison Street overpass in the last year. Storms are expected to continue through Saturday.
Jordan Kartholl/The Star Press

Firefighters rescued the occupants of a car that became stranded under the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street following heavy rain Friday afternoon. The driver disregarded a flashing high water sign positioned before the overpass.The water rescue was one of several performed by emergency responders under the Madison Street overpass in the last year. Storms are expected to continue through Saturday.
Jordan Kartholl/The Star Press

A construction crew works on a draining system adjacent to the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street where flooding has occurred regularly in severe weather situations.
Jordan Kartholl / The Star Press

Firefighters rescued the occupants of a car that became stranded under the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street following heavy rain Friday afternoon. The driver disregarded a flashing high water sign positioned before the overpass.The water rescue was one of several performed by emergency responders under the Madison Street overpass in the last year. Storms are expected to continue through Saturday.
Jordan Kartholl/The Star Press

Firefighters rescued the occupants of a car that became stranded under the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street following heavy rain Friday afternoon. The driver disregarded a flashing high water sign positioned before the overpass.The water rescue was one of several performed by emergency responders under the Madison Street overpass in the last year. Storms are expected to continue through Saturday.
Jordan Kartholl/The Star Press

A construction crew works on a draining system adjacent to the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street where flooding has occurred regularly in severe weather situations.
Jordan Kartholl / The Star Press

A construction crew works on a draining system adjacent to the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street where flooding has occurred regularly in severe weather situations.
Jordan Kartholl / The Star Press

A construction crew works on a draining system adjacent to the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street where flooding has occurred regularly in severe weather situations. (Photo: Jordan Kartholl / The Star Press)Buy Photo

MUNCIE, Ind. — For much of the past century, the Madison Street underpass has flooded in heavy rains, blocking a vital north-south artery and, inevitably, stranding cars of motorists foolhardy enough to drive into the standing water.

But the $5.5-million project aimed at fixing the underpass, where vehicle traffic passes under two railroad tracks, could be done before the end of this year, Muncie Sanitary District officials tell The Star Press.

Two MSD board members, Joe Evans and Mike Cline, the latter the engineer for the district, said this past week they anticipated the underpass project could be done by mid-to-late September.

Construction has been ongoing for several months just to the east of the underpass on a pumping station and, ultimately, a 750,000-gallon holding tank that will remove water from the underpass and hold it until channeling it into the district's new downtown stormwater system for eventual discharge into White River.

Although railroad tracks were built in the area in 1880, Evans and Cline said, the underpass itself dates to the 1920s. The railroad bridge carries Norfolk Southern and CSX trains every day over four lanes of Madison Street traffic at the edge of downtown.

Sanitary district officials proposed an underpass flooding fix in recent years after Mayor Dennis Tyler agreed with the railroad companies to close several area crossings to vehicle traffic to lessen train horn noise in a "quiet zone" project to benefit the Courtyard hotel downtown. With other streets closed at railroad crossings, keeping traffic flowing on Madison Street became vital. The Star Press reported on the underpass plan in 2015.

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A construction crew works on a draining system adjacent to the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street where flooding has occurred regularly in severe weather situations. (Photo: Jordan Kartholl / The Star Press)

Cline and Evans said the underpass fix consists of several elements, including a pumping station with a pump 40 feet deep. The top of the pumping station has been built in recent months. On top of the pumping station will be built the $750,000-gallon tank.

The last elements of the fix are stormwater inlets at the bottom of the underpass. Water will pass through those, be pumped into the holding tank and pumped out to a nearby MSD pipe and into the downtown stormwater system that includes the Liberty Pass canal, which opened in 2015.

Evans said the inlets should be done this summer and Cline said some lanes of traffic would be restricted during construction.

The underpass work addresses two problems, Cline said: the underpass flooding and stormwater in the sewer system in the area.

Cline said the underpass work has a "not to exceed" price tag from the contractor of $5.5 million. Bowen Engineering is the contractor on both the underpass project and upgrades to the MSD plant along the White River on the city's west side.

The plant work includes replacing a combined stormwater and sanitary sewer in the area, construction of a 15-million-gallon earthen-style basin and a pumping station. The plant upgrade cost is $30 million, Cline said.

The district is spending $193 million over 20 years to separate storm and sanitary sewers throughout the city and an unspecified amount to make improvements to the White River levee for two miles through the city to win recertification of the levee from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Contact Keith Roysdon at 765-213-5828 and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

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A construction crew works on a draining system adjacent to the Unity Pass overpass on Madison Street where flooding has occurred regularly in severe weather situations. (Photo: Jordan Kartholl / The Star Press)